The Trump administration is withholding more than a quarter of a billion dollars of Medicaid funding from Minnesota, saying the state allowed the theft of federal funds intended for social-welfare programs in the state.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who oversees the Medicaid healthcare program for low-income households, announced the temporary halt at a joint press conference on Wednesday, where they criticized Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s administration for not doing enough to combat fraud.
We are stopping the federal payments that will go to the state government until the state government takes its obligations seriously,” Vance said.
Walz fired back on social media, accusing the administration of attempting to punish Democratic-run states.
“This has nothing to do with fraud,” he said in a post on X. “This is a campaign of retribution. Trump is weaponizing the entirety of the federal government to punish blue states like Minnesota.”
Republican President Donald Trump’s administration has used fraud allegations in Minnesota as part of its justification for a months-long immigration crackdown in the state, during which federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens, and for freezing funds meant for social programs.
Administration officials have pointed to a scandal that began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Department of Justice indicted 47 people for allegedly defrauding $250 million from a federally funded child nutrition program.